The present disclosure relates to a display/input device that accepts setting of various setting values. The present disclosure also relates to an image forming apparatus incorporating such a display/input device.
Image forming apparatuses such as multifunction peripherals, copiers, facsimile machines, and printers are often provided with a display/input device that allows selection of a kind of job (function), selection of a setting item, and setting of a setting value. It would be convenient if a user who has a setting value which he frequently sets can set it through a simple operation. In would be particularly convenient if a user who has a set of a plurality of setting values which he frequently sets can set them at once through a simple operation. Thus, a function is sometimes available that allows registration of a state (conditions) in which frequently used setting values have been set. This permits a user to restore a setting state at the tine of registration simply by retrieving the registered condition.
For example, one known image forming apparatus allows registration of image formation conditions in the following manner. A job (image formation conditions) is registered in a job memory; the registered job is displayed as an icon on a display portion; when the job is registered, according to a display instruction, the icon of the job registered is automatically displayed. This configuration allows registration as desired, and allows prompt selection of a registered job.
As mentioned above, in an image forming apparatus, a display/input device is often capable of registering a state (conditions) in which setting values have been set by a user (sometimes called a “program function”). A user repeats operations for selecting setting items and for determining setting values so that he will obtain a desired output. The user thereby brings the display/input device into a state where desired setting values have been set. Subsequently, the user enters an instruction to register. This permits a particular setting state to be registered. For example, when a user wants to register a setting state for performing eco printing, in which less toner is used than usual, simultaneously with combined printing, in which a plurality of pages are printed in a single page, then the user sets “On” as the setting value for “eco printing” and “2 in 1” or “4 in 1” for the setting value for combined printing, and registers the selling state. On the other hand, in an image forming apparatus, a display/input device is loaded with default selling values for setting items respectively.
When a setting state is registered, not only setting values set by a user but also setting values for setting items for which no setting has been done may be stored together. Specifically, for a setting item for which a setting value has been changed from a default value through an operation by a user, the setting value set by the user is stored; on the other hand, for a setting item for which a setting value has not been changed from a default value, the default value is stored. In this way, the setting state (saved setting data) is stored.
However, a user creates a setting state so that he will obtain a desired output and then registers it. Accordingly, the user has no or hardly any sense of having registered default values. Thus, inconveniently, even when a user retrieves a registered setting state and performs a job, if a default value has been changed, he may not have desired results.
For example, copying may be handled as follows. Suppose, when a setting state is registered, the default value for the setting item “double-side printing” is “double-side printing disabled (Off)”, and thus this setting value is registered. Later, due to a change in corporate guidelines or the like, the default value for double-side printing is changed to “double-side printing enabled (On)”. On the other hand, when a setting state is retrieved and copying is performed, the setting state is restored based on the setting values for all the setting items at the time of registration. After retrieval of the setting state, performing printing yields a printout with double-side printing disabled. This is an unintended (undesirable) result for a user who wants to obtain a printout with double-side printing enabled (a user who wants to an output according to current default values). The user has no sense of having set a setting item which had been registered with the default value. Thus, after retrieving a setting state, the user does not feel a necessity to confirm a setting item for which the default value has been changed. On the other hand, a user may occasionally wants an output to which the default value before change is applied. Thus, it is not desirable to apply current default values to setting items that have been registered with default values.
Incidentally, in the well-known image forming apparatus mentioned above, it is unclear how a change that is made in a default value after registration of a setting state is coped with. Thus, no solution to the above-mentioned inconvenience is obtained.